Turner on Injury, WVU Visit

Shea Dixon

09/28/2010

Trai Turner remains a solid commitment to LSU's 2011 class.

LSU’s in state crop of seniors has already produced three
commitments to the Tigers, a group anchored on the outside by five-star tackle
La’el Collins. At guard, the Tigers picked up pledges from the No. 15 and No.
30 ranked prospects in Turner and Corey White, respectively.

A key piece to St. Augustine High’s offensive success,
Turner has helped pave the way for freshman Leonard Fournette to break onto the
Louisiana high school football scene with a handful of 200-plus yard rushing
nights.

“The kid is amazing,” Turner said. “When I heard that he
had gotten offered by LSU, I was shocked. He has four years until college and
he already has the attention of lots of coaches. All I have to do is get him
to the second level, and then Leonard gets the credit for the rest.”

Though they entered the season at the top of the state
rankings, the Purple Knight’s opening night brought a major hit. St. Augustine
dropped a 59-56 game to West Jefferson, and Turner was down and not set to
return.

“I dislocated my shoulder on a defensive play,” Turner said.
“I made a tackle and came down the wrong way. I think things got emotional for
the team after I went down, and with the way the game turned out, it showed
that we weren’t invincible.

“When we came in ranked No. 1, I was kind of afraid of that,
mainly because we were still young. People say we have nothing to worry about,
but I liked it more when we had the chip on our shoulder.”

St. Augustine bounced back with a 52-20 win over McDonough
35 and a 46-19 win over Easton. In their 35-22 win over LaGrange last weekend,
Turner returned to the field and was able to go from start to finish.

“My shoulder is feeling fine right now,” he said. “It was
aching a little at gametime, so I was somewhat sluggish. Eventually I am going
to get back to full speed. I played decent for my first game back, so it should
get better.”

The 6-foot-4, 330-pounder made the drive from New Orleans to
Baton Rouge last Saturday, where he spent the afternoon and evening with both
the current commitments and his future Tiger teammates.

“I hung out with Tyrann (Mathieu), Spencer Ware and Sam Gibson, and then some of the offensive linemen like Chris Faulk and Evan Washington,” Turner said. “When I was at the game I hung out with all the other
committed guys. The weekend was really nice. Every time that I am around the
coaches and that environment, I know I made the right choice. LSU is somewhere
I have always wanted to be.”

While Turner won’t make LSU’s weekend game against the
Volunteers, count the New Orleans native in for a number of trips to Baton
Rouge throughout the fall.

“I am probably going to try and make all of the games, and
I’m not looking to get around to any other places right now,” he said. “Our
game this weekend is at 2:30 in the afternoon as well, so I might even get up
there afterwards just to hang around when the game is over.”